Marker vs. Pencil: Japanese Maple

 

10/17/26 F-C Pitt Artist Brush Pens in Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook
(photo reference)

If you look closely at the individual leaves of trees that are turning, you’ll see that most exhibit a gradient range of hues. With tiny Japanese maple leaves, the effect is intensified: As small as they are, each still shows a gradient at varying stages of change. From a distance, the visual effect is that the tree looks like a haze of hues: Optical color mixing at its best. It’s different from foliage consisting of much larger leaves, which tends to appear more like large masses of individual hues.

Dashing out for a quick walk and sketch before the predicted rain, I got caught in a shower. I didn’t sketch, but I couldn’t resist snapping a few photos to use later. (See end of post for some Japanese maples from my walking route. Neighborhood leaf peeping continues!).

I’ve always felt that colored pencils and especially watercolor pencils are among the best media to capture that haze of hues I’m talking about. I needed my InkTober sketch for the day, though, so I pulled out my daily-carry palette of Faber-Castell Pitt Brush Pens. It occurred to me that I had probably never used markers to try to capture the Japanese maple effect: It was an excellent opportunity for the challenge!

The result is above. To avoid the “heavy” look that markers can impart fairly quickly, I used the side of the brush nib to get a more pointillist effect.

10/17/26 Cd'A Museum Aquarelle watercolor pencils in
Hahnemuhle Akademie Aquarell sketchbook (photo reference)

That done, I couldn’t help myself: I got out my pre-InkTober daily-carry palette of watercolor pencils (mostly Caran d’Ache Museum Aquarelle) and used the same photo reference (at right).

With the help of toothy Hahnemühle paper and a relatively dry waterbrush, it was easy to get that haze of color that looks more “realistic” (and frankly, I do love that look). Although the brush marker version doesn’t capture the haze as well, I think it seems fresher and more animated. At least in this case, it surprises me that I prefer it!

What about you? Let me know your favorite media for capturing Japanese maples!

Sublime Color at the Quad

 

10/18/26 University of Washington Quad

Although the University of Washington Quad cherry trees take center stage every spring when they blossom, they are often overlooked in the fall. It’s still a joy to see their sublime beauty – and just as challenging to sketch it! Elsewhere on campus, more trees and even the ivy clinging to buildings were dressed for autumn. As if that weren’t enough, USk Seattle was once again treated to perfect October weather last Sunday afternoon: A bit chilly and breezy in the shade, but mostly clear skies with sunshine.

Unlike in the spring when it’s mobbed, sketchers had the Quad nearly to themselves. I started there and filled a couple of pages among the cherries (top and below).

Getting chilled from standing in the shade of the huge trees, I moved out to Red Square’s sunshine. The Broken Obelisk sculpture and even the statue of George Washington looked lovely in the mid-afternoon light.

UW Red Square

Uncertain about the weather, we had waited until only a couple of days before the outing to announce it. Despite that, USk Seattle made a strong turnout. We all know our days of great weather are numbered!

This hickory is on fire!

Sublime color in the Quad

Look at that ivy!

Mid-InkTober Change-Up: Pitt Artist Pens

 

Out with the Staedtlers; in with the Pitts

While I was using Staedtler Pigment Arts brush markers, I complained that the only significant flaw in the “Nature Colours” set is insufficient midtones. To suit the way I’ve been choosing palettes lately, I like having a warm and a cool of light, medium and dark tones (this is the same basic principle I started developing at the beginning of the year). While the preselected palette was generally satisfactory for urban sketching in autumn, I missed having a true orange. The light blue was OK as the cool light tone, but it hardly showed up when I used it for sky. Although I carried all 12 of the Staedtler pens in the set, I hardly used the medium blue because it was too dark to use as a midtone, and indigo made a much better dark tone.

With all of that in mind, I pulled out my Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens and picked out a palette to use for the rest of InkTober. The page below from my color journal shows the Staedtler palette at the top, followed by the Pitt colors I auditioned. The bottom row with color numbers is the final palette: a solid range of at least one warm and one cool of each of the three values.

My color journal page where I auditioned Pitt colors; bottom row shows final selection
(medium gray not shown because it's an everyday essential).

My first shot at the new palette and pen set was Friday at Swansons Nursery. It was a bit disorienting at first to have an unfamiliar palette to work with, especially in a location that tends to overwhelm me anyway. The brush tips and ink, however, felt so similar to the Staedtler brush markers that the transition was mostly seamless.

My first try with the new palette at Swansons last Friday

As with the Staedtler palette, it’s not a full rainbow, which is a limitation that I’m really learning from. Despite my own objections, I always (annoyingly) tend toward coloring things as close as possible to “reality.” Lacking the exact hues I see, I’m reminded to look at their values instead – and I can simultaneously kick myself in the rear to stop being so literal about color! Win-win!

In fact, after Friday’s first trial, I’m wondering if I should remove a couple of colors – it almost feels like too many. Although I have the same number of Pitts, some of the Staedtler colors weren’t useful, so I had fewer self-imposed choices.

One purely mechanical issue with Pitt markers is that they are gravity-sensitive: If they stand nib end up in my bag or in a desk cup for a while, the ink will run down to the base, and the pen will be dry until the ink starts flowing again. (The manufacturer recommends that they be stored horizontally.) To begin the month, I’m going to go ahead and carry them upright in my bag as I prefer to do with all my daily-carry materials. The Staedtler markers fared fine that way; we’ll see how the Pitts do. If they start having issues, I may have to resort to a different carry method.

Fabulously Orange at Swansons

 

10/6/26 Swansons Nursery, Blue Ridge neighborhood

Every day of glorious weather in October feels like a gift not to be squandered. On Friday when USk Seattle met at Swansons Nursery, the temp got up to 75! Sunlight on the outdoor displays intensified all the colors, especially the vivid orange pumpkins everywhere.

It took me a while to zero in on a view that didn’t overwhelm me with details. I’ve sketched at Swansons many times (according to my spreadsheet, USk has sketched there more often than any other venue, sometimes more than once a year), and I always feel that way at first. I finally found a pile of pumpkins near the parking lot that seemed manageable (above).

Later I wandered out to an area where huge planters and pots are displayed. I liked the contrast between the large planter shapes and the small details and color in the background (below).

As always in public spaces, I looked around for dogs to sketch, and I found one quietly waiting for his human to finish up her conversation. It was over sooner than I expected, so I didn’t have time to put in the second party!

What a fabulously orange day!

Frankie (Plus Remaining Staedtler Brush Pen Sketches)

 

10/15/26 Frankie Feetsplinters at the National Nordic Museum

Although it was really just an excuse to stop for lunch at AA Sushi, I ran an errand in Ballard. The trip turned out to be a good opportunity for new experiments with brush pens.

First, there was lunch itself (at right). While making the initial outlines of my sushi with a Pentel Sign brush pen (my current favorite for this type of sketching) in an avocado green Uglybook, I suddenly remembered that the only coloring materials I had in my bag were the Staedtler Pigment Arts brush markers I have been using for InkTober. For the first week, I had continued to carry my usual watercolor pencils and crayons, “just in case,” but eventually I decided to make a full commitment to markers and removed the other materials. Transparent markers don’t always work well on colored papers; this would be an interesting experiment. I leaned on my white materials for details – a Neocolor I crayon and a Gelly Roll pen – and the rest turned out more like shading than color. Anyway, I was too hungry to care.

After the errand, I walked to the National Nordic Museum, where Frankie Feetsplinters, the troll by Danish environmental artist Thomas Dambo, greets visitors. I’ve sketched Frankie a few times before, but not with markers. Using the side of the marker made great textures to indicate Frankie’s rustic wood construction (top of post).

10/13/26 Maple Leaf neighborhood

The other sketches shown here are the remainder for InkTober using Staedtler markers that you haven’t seen in previous posts. Unlike the past several InkTobers when I worked on themes and exclusively from photos, so far this year I’ve done all the sketches from life. It’s nice to have InkTober fit seamlessly into my “normal life” instead of as a segregated activity. It means that brush markers are not just a studio material – they can fit into my usual urban sketching routine beyond InkTober.

Onward to the second half of the month! I’ve removed all the Staedtler markers from my bag and replaced them with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens. An upcoming post will show how I chose the limited palette, which I intend to stick with for the remainder of InkTober.

10/13/26 Kirke Park (This was a demo sketch after a friend asked me how I use markers.)

The Market is “Ours” Again

 

10/14/26 The Pike Place Market's Secret Garden

We’d been waiting impatiently all summer for the cruise ships to go away so that it would be safe to go back to “our” Pike Place Market again! Roy, Mary Jean and I are a bit possessive about one of our favorite places to sketch because the mobs of tourists who descend every summer make it difficult to even walk through. It was a joy to walk easily and freely in the popular Market thoroughfares and even explore lesser-known corners.

Rachel the Pig is where the most tourists like to stop and pose for photos.

One such place was The Secret Garden (top of post). Although it’s open to the public, you have to know how to get to it. I was delighted to meet Gardenia, a bright yellow pig, in the garden. (Not to be mistaken for Rachel, the pig near the famed fish-tossing fishmongers, or Billy, at the Market’s northend. With slots in their backs, they all have the job of collecting donations for the Pike Place Market Foundation.) We also discovered several newish cafés and shops and even one not-quite-open restaurant with view seating. I made lots of notes for future outings.  

By noon when the sun started to appear, we went to the Waterfront Overlook, where I made the kind of composition I probably would not have if I’d been using colored pencils or crayons instead of markers (below). Something about the brush markers I’ve been using for InkTober seems to invite me to choose scenes like this that are more about tone than color. It’s interesting how I choose different subject matter or compositions depending on the medium I plan to use.

Waterfront Overlook

After lunch we sketched around the Market’s Post Alley, which is always mostly in shade. Frustrated by having only one neutral midtone, I had to make the famous “Post Alley” sign green, even though it’s really a pale blue (but in deep shade). I did like making the white-ish buildings bright yellow, though, emphasizing the sunlight on them.

The Market's famous Post Alley

Ahhh – it’s great to have “our” Market back again!

Good to be back!

InkTober Check-in: Making Friends with Brush Markers

10/12/26 Wedgwood neighborhood. I stood near the middle of this quiet street
to sketch. Neighbors stood on their respective porches to have this conversation.

InkTober is half over, and I’m pleased and surprised to say that I’m enjoying using Staedtler Pigment Arts Brush Pens! As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve long been attracted to brush markers for their expediency and range of line widths, but I’ve never found a way to use them that suited my style or esthetic. I just don’t care for the marker-y look, which I obviously can’t avoid completely: Markers be markers. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from participating in InkTober each year, it’s that using a specific tool or medium daily for an extended time teaches me how I relate to it better than when I use it only sporadically – even if I think I don’t like it (that was my big takeaway years ago when I devoted the month to ballpoint pens). Because what makes me want to use an unfamiliar medium is finding an approach that feels like my own, and that takes committed time to practice.

I was thinking of doing a review of these Staedtler markers, which were new to me before InkTober, but I would need to use them longer to make a fair assessment. For example, after two weeks (and a couple of months for the black and gray ones), the tips are holding out OK under my heavy hand, but I don’t know how much longer that will be true. I also don’t know how long the ink will last.  

The Staedtler "Nature Colours" set

An interesting comparison would be with what I think are their primary competitor, Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Brush Pens. Both containing waterproof, transparent pigment inks, they seem close in features, yet the Staedtler pens are significantly less expensive. In addition, the Staedtler pens are not available open stock, which makes them less convenient. Still, I’m enjoying the challenge of using the predetermined palette in the “Nature Colours” set that I’ve been using. I think it’s good for me (in the same way that eating kale is good for me) to use colors that wouldn’t necessarily be my first choice.

Esthetically, I also like the way all my InkTober sketches so far have a cohesive look from the common limited palette.

All of that said, it’s change-up time! All along, I’ve been curious about how these Staedtler markers compare with Faber-Castell’s Pitt pens. The latter are much more familiar to me; I’ve been using them sporadically for years, but I’ve never given them any devoted time. Although Pitt marker maestro Don Colley has long been my marker guru, even his inspiring demos and workshops couldn’t get me past whatever resistance I have (or had) with markers. While he does magic with his, I just haven’t found a way to make them my own.

So far, the tips of my most-used markers are holding up under
my heavy hand...but for how much longer?

In the remaining weeks of InkTober, I’m going to do exactly what I’ve been doing with Staedtler markers: I’ve preselected a limited palette (though this time of my own choosing, since I have a decently wide selection of Pitts) that I’ll stick with. Now that the Staedtlers have warmed me to markers, the Pitts should be an easy transition. And with both brands fresh in my memory, by the end of the month, I might be better informed for writing a comparison review. 

Before then, though, I still have a few more Staedtler sketches to show.